A Walk in the Bush Wins CBCA Picture Book of the Year, The Very Noisy Baby Named Honour Book for Early Childhood.

A Walk in the Bush by Gwyn Perkins has won the Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards (CBCA) for Best Picture Book and The Very Noisy Baby by Alison Lester was named Honour Book in the category of Early Childhood. The announcement was made at a ceremony in Brisbane on Friday 17 August.

A Walk in the Bush, a whimsical picture book inspired by the wilderness in NSW by debut author/illustrator, Gwyn Perkins, was the first ever book released on the Affirm Press kids list. When Gwyn signed his publishing contract he said it was his dream to one day have a book with a sticker on the cover. He found out about the CBCA nomination (and associated stickering) on his 76th birthday and today was elated to hear the sticker was upgraded to say ‘winner.’

‘The whole event has amazed me ever since I made it to the longlist. I haven’t felt this way about my work before,’ Gwyn said.

The Very Noisy Baby is a wonderfully boisterous story in rhyme inspired by Alison’s granddaughter, who does have an impressive set of pipes as all who know her will attest.

Martin Hughes, Publishing Director at Affirm Press, said: ‘The Affirm Press kids list is led by commissioning editor Clair Hume and senior editor Davina Bell, and they have done a fabulous job since launching our list in 2017. With two out of our first three picture books getting gongs in the CBCA, we couldn’t be happier with how the list is going. And that it’s a combination of a debut from Gwyn and a master storyteller in Alison makes it all the more fulfilling. We are so excited to watch the kids list grow.’

The Very Noisy Baby has sold over 20,000 copies since its release in November 2017 and A Walk in the Bush has sold over 16,000 showing the growing strength of independent publishing in Australia.